94 mazda b2300

[SVT Ranger]

I'm far from a genius on computer controlled vehicles, but I think I've had enough Rangers to maybe lend a hand. Where yours is a swap vehicle, it could make things a little more difficult. I hate throwing random stuff on a vehicle in an attempt to fix it, so here's what I would do.

1) Ensure all grounds and connections are clean and tight. Whether bolt on connections or clip connectors.
2) Buy a $30 Innova 3145 Ford OBD1 scanner, pull codes and run test. I can't believe that nobody has suggested this. It will save a ton of time and at least point you in some guided direction on what is functioning or not.
3) 93-95 Rangers are NOTORIOUS for having the ground wire on the EEC and Fuel pump relay plugs under the hood come loose and causing intermittent no start issues. With your symptoms, this sounds highly suspect.

Try those 3 things before throwing any additional parts at it and you might be surprised at the outcome and it will help us get you heading in the right direction to get you and the truck back in the game.

 

[94b2300ranger]

Decided to open up the ECM and found this.

Soldered it back together and all my problems are solved!! Such great satisfaction that it's fixed and I'm able to drive it again and continue on with the project!!!

Thanks for all that have helped!!!!!

 

[BlackBII]

Oh wow. Never had that problem before! Glad to see you got it fixed.

 

[94b2300ranger]

Took it for a shake down run, drove it around town, then took it on the freeway. Runs great!!! Going to make a 350 mile round trip this weekend with it, should do well. The electric fan I installed seems to be keeping up, i just have it turned all the way down, it gets about 3/4 over on the factory gauge at a stop light, but is steady. As long as this trip goes well, I will be moving on to starting the long travel suspension.

 

[BlackBII]

Good to hear it's running great.

Can't wait to see what you do with the suspension.

 

[94b2300ranger]

So the first leg of my trip went well, it made it 175 miles with no problem, until I was about 1 mile from our other shop and one of the transmission shift rail freeze plugs I put in decided it didn't want to live there anymore. It started to puke out ATF all over the cat and smoking like crazy, cleaned it up, replugged it with a expandable plug and was good to go. That was on Friday.

On Saturday I go to warm up the truck before I take off to the local pick-n-pull, and the fan decided to come off the electric motor (retaining clip fell off) in doing so it put a hole in my radiator and I spent yesterday replacing it. Took so long cause I had to order it and wait for it to come in.

Today, Sunday, so far so good. Drove it around town, ran some errands and it's doing great. I wired in my front turn signals and wired in my backup rigid lights.

 

[94b2300ranger]

Well my power steering pump bearing is on its way out, so going to be replacing it soon.

Went to pick and pull today and scored on a vinyl carpet for my truck, only cost me $15! Cleaning it up right now and will be installing it later tonight.

https://flic.kr/p/YW9X8U

 

[94b2300ranger]

Interior starting to take shape!

 

[BlackBII]

Looking great! I'm jealous of your vinyl flooring. I could only find carpet. You can't beat a nice clean interior in these older trucks. It really makes them so much nicer to drive.

 

[94b2300ranger]

Looking great! I'm jealous of your vinyl flooring. I could only find carpet. You can't beat a nice clean interior in these older trucks. It really makes them so much nicer to drive.

Thanks! I was just looking around at what was there and spotted the flooring, been really wanting to fix up the interior, so that's on the list while i save up some money for suspension parts. Been kicking myself in the ass everyday cause i didn't pull a super clean dash out of a 94 ranger i saw a few weeks back. Went back to pull it and the truck was gone... The dash didn't have any cracks or scratches. Going to have a co-worker who does interior help me with redoing my headliner soon.

 

[94b2300ranger]

So i've been pouring all my time being with my first born and its been great! Mazda was put on the back burner after trying to figure out where a loud squeal was coming from, tried 2 different belts and decided to do some research and found out that the 4.0 are really picky when it comes to belts. Just received a Continental belt from rockauto, same belt as the gatorbelt and squeal is gone!!!

Moving on to the next problem, well my fault, I got excited when I got my clutch and flywheel in and didn't replace my rear main seal like I had planned on doing. I had the seal, just got ahead of myself and now it looks like i'm going to be pulling the tranny. Oops.....Oh well. I have noticed that I'm getting a coolant leak between the engine block and trans housing, read up on it and i'm going to say it's the freeze plugs behind the flywheel, I won't know till i'm in there. Those are on order and will be in tomorrow.

Last thing, when i was on it's initial voyage, I was about 30 miles from completing my trip and was getting hesitation at about 3/4 throttle, at WOT it was fine. I tested the TPS and was getting some spots that weren't putting out voltage. So TPS is on the list.

Just down to the little stuff now.

 

[94b2300ranger]

It's been a blast driving it again!!!

I have a question, what's a good factory replacement fuel pump. I noticed i have the same idle just like i had when the 2.3 was in there. I know its the original pump, since it's been in the family since it was new (dad owned it).

 

[BlackBII]

I recommend Bosch for the fuel pump. They are much better than the garbage airtex/wells/dorman units.

Sucks about the leaks! That's one thing about rebuilding a vehicle, you usually have to do it many times to fix all the little things. Good luck!

 

[94b2300ranger]

I recommend Bosch for the fuel pump. They are much better than the garbage airtex/wells/dorman units.


Sucks about the leaks! That's one thing about rebuilding a vehicle, you usually have to do it many times to fix all the little things. Good luck!

Got all the leaks fixed, so it's slowly getting to the point where I just have to do preventative maintenance.


Well yesterday I was on my way home on the freeway and my fuel pump went out on me, it's the factory pump from 94. I'm surprised it lasted that long. So it's on the list now.

While we were loading the truck on to the trailer, it was a huge pain in the ass using ratchet straps to get it on and my buddy suggested using the starter to get it up (he's owned Toyotas with neutral bypass switches) I think I'm going to install a similar setup for emergency uses.

 

[94b2300ranger]

Replaced my fuel pump this weekend, back on the road. chose to remove the bed instead of dropping the tank. A lot easier and not laying on the ground, 6 bed bolts, fuel filler hose and one electrical connector had to be removed to pull the bed. Having a extra set of hands makes it easy to pull, bed isn't heavy.